Monkees Show Back on TV – Peter, Micky and Andrew Live this

The all new biography of Michael Nesmith of The Monkees is out, with 75 new photos and 2 new chapters, with details on the 1997 reunion, ABC special and the only known photo of Michael with his father. Buy it online and get free gifts and free shipping!

This Sunday (July 9th) at 9pm, Andrew will be performing at Spacelandin Silverlake (Los Angeles, California). Admission is FREE!

++++++++++++++++++

from: robynapelt

micky will be at rockers on broadway on july 10th 2006 at the cuttingroom 19 west 24th street manhattan tickets $25.00 at the doorshow is at 8.pm see www.rockersonbroadway.com orhttp;//www.playbill.com/news/article/100496.html for more . fromrobynapelt@ecn.net.au

++++++++++++++++++++

From: Laura

Peter will be on the radio this Sun., July 9th at 5 PM, eastern time. Here are the details. Disregard, if you already know about this. I just happened to see it on his website. You can listen on the internet.

Part of the ‘blues-a-thon’, from 5-7pm.Peter is being interviewed for the show which will also feature a few cuts from Peter’s past and present recordings – including a cut from “Saved by the Blues.”

Peace, Love & JOY, Laura “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”-Mahatma Gandhi

++++++++++++++++++++++

From: “robbiegilmore”

From IMDB.com:

“I” To Become Classic TV & Movie Network

The former Pax TV network, now called “i” (that’s it, just “i”), ismetamorphosing into a network devoted entirely to old movies & TVshows. After signing an agreement last week with Warner Bros. TV forrights to air a number of “classic” TV shows, “i”, whose parent companyis now called Ion Media Networks (formerly Paxson Communications), hasstruck a deal with Sony to air such TV shows as The Monkees, Charlie’sAngels, & Silver Spoons, & such movies as Short Circuit, A River RunsThrough It, & the Academy Award-winning musical Oliver. The networkclaims it has a potential audience of 92 million, including those whocan receive it on its owned broadcast stations & on cable.

Rhino has set an Aug. 15 release date for expanded editions of the first two albums from TV stars turned pop idols the Monkees. Both will be issued as two-disc packages including stereo and mono mixes plus rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks.

1966’s “The Monkees,” which spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, sports previously unreleased alternate mixes of “Papa Gene’s Blues” and “The Kind of Girl I Could Love,” a version of “I Don’t Think You Know Me” with Micky Dolenz on vocals, a jingle for Kellogg’s and a demo for “Propinquity (I’ve Just Begun To Care).”

The following year’s “More of the Monkees” was even more successful than its predecessor, spending 18 weeks at No. 1. Among the bonus tracks are “Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)” with narration by Peter Tork, the first recorded version of “Valleri,” an alternate take of “Tear Drop City” and a different mix of “I’m a Believer.”

Owing to a history of inter-band acrimony, the Monkees last toured with all four original members in 1997. Minus Nesmith, Dolenz, Tork and Davy Jones subsequently hit the road on several occasions but have no plans to work together in the future.

“I would not work with those guys again if my life depended on it,” Jones recently told Scripps Howard News Service. “I can’t be responsible for their attitudes and the way they treat people.”

Who was more influential: Jimi Hendrix or the Monkees, a faux-boy band who didn’t actually play their instruments but became heartthrobs after they launched a silly, slap-stick sitcom that featured corny adventures and goofy outfits? Apparently, Monkee frontman Davy Jones thinks he some kind of authority on dead rockers like Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin. He says he doesn’t respect them.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for people like Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain or Janis Joplin or Elvis Presley because they all killed themselves in one way or another,” Jones told the Winnipeg Sun. “Although I often wonder what they’d be doing now if they were still alive. Would they be these crumbling look-alikes of the same people, greeting people at the entrance of Caesar’s Palace?”

Jones went on to take credit for washed up Guns N’ Roses frontman Alx Roses’s dance moves.

“I was watching videos with my kids about 20 years ago, and one of my daughters said, ‘Dad, why are you dancing like Axl Rose?’ ” he says. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Did your mother tell you to say that?’ “

You know, Jones, sometimes it really is better than to burn out than fade away. What have you been up to lately? You know, besides inspiring a hard-rock dinosaur to move his hips?

Andrew has been busy today! Over at Steve Hoffman forum,he hasposted some “hints” as what is on the 1st 2 releases:

The great thing about the new reissues is you get to hear all ofthis music together – in one place. The bonus material is filledwith surprises (different vocals, mixes and studio chat). As for “SoGoes Love” it will appear for the first time at the originalrecorded speed (it is sped up on Missing Links) and with apreviously unheard double tracked vocal.Virtually every bonus track has some extra element to it – studiochat, different mix – something unheard. We’ve been working up tothe last minute to have these be filled with good sound and greatsongs.

And someone asked about what all the designations on the MOTMreissue meant:the designations don’t mean anything – all will be revealed soon….

We are getting close to getting the whole picture!

Stay tuned!

Bob T

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Ed Olsen

Hi Group,Just saw the first 2 Monkees Albums, The Monkees and More of the Monkees Deluxe 2 CD editions from Rhino listed on Amazon UK with a release date of August 6, and on Amazon USA as imports with a release date of August 10. The countdown has begun!

Today we reran the chapter on the history of THE MONKEES’ song VALLERI … it comes from our THE SONGS OF TOMMY BOYCE AND BOBBY HART Series that we published a couple of years ago in FORGOTTEN HITS.

Since you were so helpful in promoting this piece in the past, I’m sending it to you again in its entirety in the hopes that other MONKEES / BOYCE AND HART Fans (and ’60’s Music Fans) may want to look it over and check out our FORGOTTEN HITS Music Service. (We’ve got three great new series coming up that may be of interest: THE TOP 200 BIGGEST TWO-SIDED HITS OF ALL-TIME followed by an exclusive interview with PETER NOONE of HERMAN’S HERMITS … and then a VERY lengthy feature spotlighting some of the great, FAVORITE, FORGOTTEN B-SIDES as nominated by our readers.

Interested parties should contact The60sShop@aol.com. Thanks, Brad!

By popular request today, we’re going to rerun (’60’s FLASHBACK Style) one of the most popular chapters from our TOMMY BOYCE AND BOBBY HART Series.

About two years ago, we ran a three week series spotlighting the songs written by TOMMY BOYCE AND BOBBY HART … naturally, the hits they wrote for THE MONKEES became a big part of that feature.

The story behind the song VALLERI seemed to most capture the interest of our FORGOTTEN HITS readers … in fact, it was THIS particular chapter that the online MONKEES fanzine FLEXQUARTERS ran an excerpt from which resulted in several new readers joining the FORGOTTEN HITS Mailing List.

Today, by popular demand, we’re going to rerun this special VALLERI chapter.

***

Today we’re going to examine the FACTS and FABLES concerning another one of THE MONKEES’ biggest hits.

In his book HOW TO WRITE A HIT SONG…AND SELL IT, TOMMY BOYCE tells a funny, interesting story revolving around one of THE MONKEES’ last big hits.

THE MONKEES were always being supplied new musical material from a virtual who’s who of songwriters: NEIL DIAMOND, GERRY GOFFIN and CAROLE KING, NILSSON, NEIL SEDAKA and DAVID GATES (later of BREAD) all had their songs recorded by the band in the first couple of years. In addition, MICKY DOLENZ, DAVY JONES, PETER TORK and, most frequently, MIKE NESMITH were submitting their OWN compositions for consideration. Therefore, as time wore on, when BOYCE AND HART were called upon to supply a song, they pretty much needed to have one “at the ready.”

THE FABLE:According to BOYCE’s account (as published in his book), back in the day when DON KIRSHNER oversaw those musical selections, he called BOYCE AND HART one morning and told TOMMY (who just happened to answer the phone … BOBBY was still sound asleep) that he had a dream last night that the title of THE MONKEES’ next #1 Record should be a girl’s name. Spontaneously, TOMMY BOYCE replied, “Donnie, you won’t believe this!!! But, last night while you were having that dream, BOBBY and I wrote an unbelievably great song for THE MONKEES … and, are you ready for this? … it has a girl’s name in the title!”KIRSHNER was flabbergasted! “Tell me the title, quick! I want to hear it! What’s her name?”Of course, TOMMY couldn’t comply … the song hadn’t been written yet! “Donnie, her name is so beautiful and so exciting that I couldn’t possibly tell it to you over the phone. But I’ll tell you what … you’re going to love it when you hear it tomorrow.” Despite KIRSHNER’s insistence that TOMMY come over now and play him the song … or, better yet, that KIRSHNER drop by THEIR place to hear the tune (that hadn’t yet been written!), TOMMY finally stalled him with the excuse that BOBBY was still sleeping. (Of course, HART didn’t know ANY of this as he really WAS still asleep … and had no idea what TOMMY had just committed them to!)KIRSHNER was adamant … “How about noon TODAY at my place?!?!” BOYCE says it was more of a command than a question. “Okay,” he said, giving in, “but do me a favor. Please have everyone there who’s connected with the television show.” KIRSHNER agreed to assemble producers BERT SCHNEIDER and BOB RAPHELSON, vice president LESTER SILL, and chairman-of-the-board JACKIE COOPER. (Nothing like putting a little more pressure on the situation!!!)At 10:00 BOYCE decided to wake BOBBY and tell him the news … after all, having just committed to writing the next #1 song in America was a pretty big deal!!! Realizing the pressure they were under, both songwriters quickly began making a list of girls’ names but none particularly struck their fancy. TOMMY had the beginnings of a melody but they just weren’t able to put it together with any of the names on the list. They decided to take a drive, hoping for inspiration (or divine intervention). At 11:00, while driving along Mulholland Drive, TOMMY finally asked BOBBY to “reach deep into your past for a recollection of one girl in your life, or even in your dreams, that you had never told anybody about.” HART gave it some thought and then replied that there WAS a girl in High School that he liked a lot but she never returned the favor. He would think about her every once in a while over the years and once had even written a song about her. “I was never too hot on the song,” he said, “but what I liked about it was the name, which was hers.”“Come on, BOBBY,” TOMMY exclaimed, “tell me her name and my melody will flow right out to meet her.” And, of course, BOBBY then replied, “And her name was VALLERI” … which INSTANTLY fit the melody that TOMMY had been working on! Now fifteen minutes away from their meeting at KIRSHNER’s house, that left them all of twelve minutes to complete the song!!! They got as far as “There’s a girl I know who makes me feel so good” which, along with the chorus, “and her name is Valleri … I love you, Valleri” was all they had when they pulled into the driveway.BOYCE was banking on the fact that KIRSHNER had wanted a song with a girl’s name in the title SO badly … and the fact that he had already told him about the GREAT song they had written “the night before” … that the conditions were, in effect, pre-programmed for them to present THE MONKEES’ next big smash hit single. (With all those executives sitting in the room waiting for the debut, the anticipation was exceptionally high … TOMMY believed that ANY song they would have played based around a girl’s name would have qualified as “exactly what they were looking for.”) They sang the chorus line in two-part harmony and then the first two lines of the verse … which was all they had. They then explained that the song still needed a little work but there was nothing to worry about … they’d have it completed by tomorrow. They then “did a reprise on the part we had written, singing it with the all gusto one reserves for GOD BLESS AMERICA.” For the grand-finale, BOYCE hit a big final chord, tossed his guitar over his shoulder and went down on one knee in his “best ELVIS fashion.” The room fell silent as they waited for KIRSHNER’s reaction. Finally, KIRSHNER jumped to his feet and shouted “It’s a smash … Number One!!!” All the other execs in the room agreed. They had pulled it off!According to TOMMY, they completed the first verse later that day and then booked studio time for the following afternoon. Then they went to a movie!!! THE MONKEES were told to report to the studio the following day at five o’clock and between two and five, the basic musical backing tracks were recorded. In twenty minutes, BOYCE AND HART wrote a second verse and between five and six o’clock THE MONKEES’ vocals were added. The whole process took all of FOUR HOURS!!! It was quickly mixed and put into the television show the following week!!!BOYCE then goes on to say that “Just as soon as the television show was aired, two disc-jockeys, one from Florida and the other from Chicago, decided on their own to make a tape of VALLERI and pipe it out from their radio stations. On each of those two stations, before it had even sold a single record, the song became Number One on the request list. RCA called Donnie Kirshner and told him that if he released it as a single, they would pre-ship two million records and guarantee that it would be the Number One Record. Good to their word, they released VALLERI the following week and within three weeks it was Number One in both Cash Box and Billboard. Two weeks later, it was Number One in almost every country in the world with sales of close to three million records.”

THE FACTS:Now that’s a pretty amazing and fascinating little story … but a little bit of research indicates that TOMMY may have “stretched the truth” just a little bit here and there.What first tipped me off was the end bit regarding VALLERI’s astounding chart life. Now PART of this story is true. After VALLERI aired on an episode of the television series, WCFL, right here in Chicago, started playing the heck out of it from a tape they had made from the broadcast. Every night it came in at #1 on the Top Five Most Requested Songs Of The Day … and this went on for weeks and weeks and weeks. (From what I understand, some folks believe that WCFL then sent out copies of their “bootleg” version of VALLERI to other stations around the country to air … however, I am more inclined to believe that they kept it to themselves as a “SUPER ‘CFL Exclusive.” However, a radio station in Florida DID get the same results when THEY played a taped copy on the air … the request lines lit up like a Christmas tree and Florida fans couldn’t get enough of the song.) Growing up here at the time, I clearly remember ALL of these events as I, too, thought VALLERI was a great song and listened to WCFL’s Top Requests Countdown every night! I remember my frustration at not being able to BUY the song because it was only available on tape at the radio station.However, THIS is where BOYCE’s story falls apart. VALLERI first aired on the CAPTAIN CROCODILE episode of the television series on February 20, 1967, five months after the series premiered on NBC. It was not released as a single until March of 1968 … a full THIRTEEN MONTHS later!!! (An RCA / COLGEMS recording log that I found shows that THE MONKEES first laid down this track on August 6, 1966 … HARDLY the week before it aired! In fact, this was before a single episode of the TV series had ever been shown … so, if ANY of that conversation between KIRSHNER and BOYCE AND HART ever really happened, they wouldn’t have referred to VALLERI as THE MONKEES’ “NEXT Number One Hit … it would have been their very FIRST Number One Hit!!! They had not yet released a single recording!!!)When VALLERI WAS finally released as a single a year later, it was a completely re-recorded version, which DID go to #1 in Cash Box but stopped at #3 in Billboard. THE MONKEES recorded a completely new version of this song in December of 1967 (sessions were held on the 26th and the 28th), which ultimately became the hit single release. (Being a HUGE MONKEES fan at the time, I remember personally being VERY surprised to see this single finally being released after all that time.) Songwriting partner BOBBY HART explains that after wrestling control away from KIRSHNER regarding the selection of the material THE MONKEES would record … and then winning the rights to play their own instruments on those records … by the end of 1967 they also had it written into their contracts that ALL future recordings would show “Produced by THE MONKEES” on the label. (By this time, each member of the band was generally recording their new tracks individually anyway, so when a new album was completed, they simply went with the group production credit.)As such, the 1966 track (which was produced by BOYCE AND HART) had to be scrapped because the Musicians Union contracts had already been filed with BOYCE AND HART’s names on them as producers. This meant that when THE MONKEES decided to release VALLERI as a single, a whole new track needed to be created. BOYCE AND HART (who, by this time, had been dismissed as producers) were approached about coming back and, according to HART, “making it sound as close to the original as possible.” Contrary to TOMMY’s account, BOBBY says “VALLERI was specifically written for them. Over a year after we cut the song, LESTER SILL came back to us and said, ‘They want you to recut VALLERI. You can’t have producers credit, but we want you to go back in and do it again, making it sound as close to the original as possible.’ So that’s what we did.”During the re-recording process, yet ANOTHER mix was created … and this is the one that seems to have found its way to oldies radio … in fact, the “cold ending” version is now more likely to be heard than the original hit single version! Today, we give you all THREE versions in FORGOTTEN HITS … the very rare TV-version mix (VALLERI-1), the hit single version (VALLERI-2, which is the re-recording from 1968 that fades out at the end) and the other now-more-popular “cold ending” version (VALLERI-3). Hopefully, along the way we’ve also shared a fascinating look at the song’s origins! (Unfortunately, this seems to be yet another case of 30-year hindsight propaganda making for a better story than the truth … with so many erroneous “facts” stated in BOYCE’s account of the song’s success, one cannot help but wonder what other “mistruths” might exist in his account of the events of the day … writing the song in an hour and a half, selling it to a room full of executives with two lines of verse and two lines of chorus and then recording the whole thing with THE MONKEES in one hour … now knowing that at LEAST three complete takes exist!) However, the “embellished” account sure does make for a fascinating story!!!

Thank you so much for all your hard work in keeping us all informed as to the acivities of the Monkees, I was able to see Day Jones in concert at Freedomfest in Wheeling IL.

It was a cool sunny day, traffic wasn’t bad and our Monkee CD sounded great, for the 2 hour ride, on the 4th of July. The festaval was easy to find and easy to enjoy the activites they had in the afternoon. We set our chairs up two rows behind a VIP fence to save our spot and enjoyed a crowded and long parade, had not seen so many people watching a parade in a long time. We journeyed back to our seats to watch the concert, as the croud grew very large to see Davy. A lady in the row in front of us was putting her chairs over the VIP fence and for some reason my daughter followed behind. Then this lady didn’t know what to do and how we would get in, because she was able to say ??. Meanwhile people moved up behind use so we lost our spot. I told security and he let us in the VIP area. (Thank You). My girls were thrilled to be on the other side of the fence.

The show started and Davy looked great, a little out of breath, his jokes didn’t go well, always checking to see if the mic was on and there was a heckler in the audience too. We heard all the classics and a few new ones (to us). It was great. At past concerts I’ve been to, we were usually standing most of time, but this one was like a sitting dinner show untill the encore. I kinda felt bad, I know performers feed off the audience, and he has said that too. Well during the encore, my kids want to move to the side of the stage, and you know possibly meet him, I didn’t want to, but I’m a mom, and I know it’s impossible anyway, but we moved, giving my girls the thrill. And it turned out to be thrilling! I instantly got grabed by the lady whom got us on the other side, going crazy, yelling and screaming at us, escorting us back to our seats, yelling at us more which I couldn’t hear much over the loud music. But I did hear the part where she was going to have us arrested! ARRESTED! Looking at my husband, giving me the look, we haphaserdly picked up all our things and left the VIP section. Now on the outside, not beleiving what just happened, checking to see we got everything and putting our stuff together, we listend to the last song, God Bless America. And blessed we were, for not being arressted at a Davy Jones concert!!!

We skipped the fireworks to get back on the road for our 2 hour journey home. Talking about what happened, what could have happened (the girls were a little scared, they are 10 and 13) and a whole bunch of other sinarios of the event that took place. We came to the conclusion that they will have a great story to tell when they get back to school, when they have to write about “How I Spent My Summer Vacation”. Well lets see, I ‘almost’ got arrested at a Davy Jones concert on the 4th of July!!!!!

To me I have come full circle, growing up in Milwaukee and seeing the guys many different times, living in up state New York and going to a concert in Boston, Living in West Virginia and going to Columbus and Pittsburg and now with so many years that have gone by, being back in Wisconsin and still seeing Davy Jone, live and in concert.Thank You so much for still touring and saring the love of music and entertainment with all of us, generations of fans!!!! We love you!!.

Jane** We Love Wisconsin, Sheboygan Falls **

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: “Morgen .”

Peter & SSB – Micky in Akron

The concert was great!!! He didn’t play Randy Scouse Git, I was very disappointed. It’s HIS song, after all. You’d think he would sing a song that he wrote!! He didn’t do “Goin’ Down” either, which is one of my very favorites. Well, I guess he had his reasons. He did do a lot of classic Monkee songs, and he put on a GREAT show, even if it was just too short!!! I think he played for more than an hour, but it felt like 10 minutes. Probably because I wanted more, more, more….He signed my daughters Gakky Two Feet book, and she was ecstatic. She keeps telling me how Micky signed her book and smiled at her, and how she said thank you. She really enjoyed the concert, too, and sang along to every song!I didn’t get a photo because my camera was going dead. I have a little digital that you have to choose photo or record on, and the battery was so low it was shutting off almost as soon as I turned it on. I just had to push the “go” button on it, and it recorded briefly, so I got him signing Rachel’s book, then it shut off! I met a really nice girl there named Tiffany who had “I Love Micky Dolenz” on the back of her t-shirt, and she took a pic with her camera and is going to email it to me. Ironically, my husband tried once more to get a shot with our dead camera, and he managed to get a shot of Tiffany’s mom with Micky! During the concert she handed him her hat, and he wore it for the rest of the concert. He probably would have kept it, but Coco took it off his head and gave it back. I’m sure he would have given it back to her at the autograph table. Anyway, so the little clip that’s on my camera is of her standing with him, and she’s wearing her hat again. So I’ll have something to send to Tiffany, too!There were a LOT of people there, and the autograph line was really long, but Micky stuck around even after signing and let people take photos with him. He was great, and he’s tops in my little girls book, still, and I’m so glad that he was so nice even though I know he must have been wiped out. (It was hot and humid).Great show, great day. THANK YOU MICKY !!!